iS8i.] NOTES ON HARDY FRUITS. 85 



Bedding Plants. — In this department do not get on faster than 

 is really necessary. It is quite general to find Geraniums potted 

 up before sufficient heat can be given them to root rapidly, while 

 cuttings of Verbenas and other tender bedders are struck, and placed 

 in odd corners indoors and out of doors, without progress being made 

 in anything — the plants meanwhile getting into a wiry condition, which 

 it takes many precious weeks of summer weather to get them out 

 of again. Prepare the plants by generous treatment to make strong 

 cuttings and plenty of them, but wait till the cuttings can be rooted 

 quickly, and turn them out as soon as possible into beds in cold 

 frames. In the middle of March plant out Violas, and also transplant 

 any hardy bedders into their positions in beds and borders. Leave 

 hardy herbaceous plants till the same time. Echeveria secunda glauca 

 should be kept as cool as possible, merely protecting from frosts. 

 Drac£enas in a small state keep growing, and make the most of seed- 

 lings of Acacia lophantha. R. P. B. 



]^rOTES ON HARDY FRUITS. 

 While on a business tour in different parts of Scotland, especially the 

 Border counties north and south of the Tweed, it occurred to me to take note 

 of such varieties of the different species of hardy fruit as I found in good 

 crop, my object being to suggest to those interested in their cultivation the 

 proper sorts to plant, and which are most likely to repay the outlay and 

 trouble of their cultivation — starting with the proposition that any tree that 

 has supported a generous crop of fruit in 1880, taking into consideration the 

 ungenial season which preceded it, is most likely to produce abundantly in 

 ordinary seasons. 



In regard to this season's produce of hardy fruits out of doors, we have 

 strong reason to suppose that in England and Scotland the present year has 

 been the most barren on record. This remark applies alike to Apples, Pears, 

 Plums, Apricots, and Peaches, the failure of which can only be attributed 

 to the influence of excessive wet and the absence of solar heat throughout 

 the entire year 1879, succeeded by an unprecedentedly early and intense frost, 

 that proved too much for young growths in their immature state, in many 

 cases killing them back to the old wood. As a natural consequence, such 

 trees produced little blossom of a perfect kind. 



In enumerating the varieties of Apples which I have found in good crop, I 

 must first mention Lord SulSield as the most certain cropper, appreciated by 

 all for its cooking qualities. I found it in full crop in all parts of the 

 Lothians, and along the banks of the Tweed from Peebles to Berwick, and 

 also down through Northumberland and Durham. The finest example of a 

 single fruit I met with occurred in the gardens of Mr Gregson, Lowly nn, near 

 Belford. It measured 4| inches in diameter, stood 5 inches in height, and 

 weighed 1 lb., — a perfect model of its kind. Mr Gregson showed the 

 writer this fruit with much satisfaction — as well he might, when he placed 

 it in the centre of a group of others very little inferior in size and 

 appearance. Warner's King claims second honours in regard to size and 

 quality, for culinary purposes. The most remarkable specimen of this 



